“He wouldn’t want to come back and get booed. You can’t control 80,750 people,'' Murphy told ESPN Wisconsin on Thursday. "[But] I really think as time goes on, every year that passes, it’s less likely that he would get booed, but that is an issue.”

The chatter rises every offseason about when Favre will return to Lambeau Field to be honored for his 16 years as a Packer, and to have his iconic No. 4 retired. However, former teammate Mark Chmura recently told a Milwaukee radio station, the plans to do it last year were nixed because Favre and the team worried about the ceremony being greeted by an outpouring of hard feelings.

Favre, Chmura said, "is very afraid of getting booed at Lambeau."

The big return won't happen this season, either. “I don’t anticipate having him retire a number this season, in a game this year,” Murphy told the site. “We have very good relations, and very good communication, but I don’t anticipate that this year.”

Favre last played for the Packers in the NFC championship game after the 2007 season, tearfully announced his retirement two months later ... and, unforgettably, later changed his mind, landed with the Jets for a year and with the arch-rival Vikings for two more after that.

LeBron watchers would recognize the scene in November 2009 when Favre took the field in Green Bay in a Vikings uniform for the first time—from the fierce booing and taunting all game long, to the pre- and post-game jersey burning in the parking lot. Earlier in the season, when the teams played in Minnesota, Packers fans held game-watch/jersey-burning parties, and the same went on the following season when the Packers and Vikings met.

The wound was fresh then. Favre retired after the 2010 season, though, and has since acknowledged how poorly he handled his split from the team. Clearly the wound hasn't healed, however, in his mind or the Packers, if they both fear the crowd's reaction to one of its favorite all-time players, who won a Super Bowl for them and played there more than twice as long as James played in Cleveland before he left.

Now, Favre's Hall of Fame election is approaching—he is eligible for the first time in 2016. The Packers still might not beat Canton to the honors, though. Asked if it could happen as soon as next year, Murphy would only say, "Hopefully."

If the spirit of reconciliation can consume LeBron James, Cleveland and the Cavaliers, then Green Bay's heart could warm toward Favre soon, it seems.